Ivey talks economy; Maddox touts lottery in final campaign stops

Democratic gubernatorial nominee Walt Maddox and Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey speaks before flying around the state on the final full day of their campaign at Montgomery Airport in Montgomery, Ala., on Monday, Nov. 5, 2018.(Photo: Jake Crandall/ Advertiser)Buy Photo

Both of the state’s gubernatorial candidates took to the air on Monday in the hopes of getting their voters out on Tuesday.

Republican Gov. Kay Ivey and Democratic nominee Walt Maddox both flew around the state Monday in a final push to get voters out ahead of Tuesday’s election, delivering their standard stump speeches.

“I’m not done yet,” Ivey said before a crowd of 30 people at Montgomery Aviation on Monday morning. “I look forward with eager anticipation to what is to come. Good paying jobs, improved education, an infrastructure plan that works (and) preserving our conservative values.”

Maddox, speaking to about 20 people a few hours later with wife Stephanie and children Taylor and Eli at his side, pitched a message focus on health care, a lottery and building a better future for Alabama.

“I want to have an Alabama that Taylor and Eli, if they want to, can start a business here, can raise a family here,” the Tuscaloosa mayor said. “But right now, we’re not building that type of future in the state.”

After pushing social issues in the primary, Ivey turned her message in the general election to experience and traditional gubernatorial issues, touting Alabama’s low unemployment rates and the recently passed 2019 education budget, which was largely decided by the Alabama Legislature, and the break with the scandal-plagued administration of Gov. Robert Bentley. The governor made most of her arguments on television, doing fewer traditional campaign rallies and shunning extended interviews.

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Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey speaks before flying around the state on the final full day of her campaign at Montgomery Airport in Montgomery, Ala., on Monday, Nov. 5, 2018.(Photo: Jake Crandall/ Advertiser)

Ivey stuck to her message in brief remarks in Montgomery on Monday.

“When I took the oath of office some 19 months ago, I told the people that we would clean up state government, we would restore people’s trust and we would get Alabama working again,” she said. “Promises made, promises kept.”

Ivey touted Alabama’s low unemployment rate; an education budget that is the largest in the state in a decade and a tax bill passed earlier this year that she called the “largest middle-class tax cut in a decade” (The Associated Press found it gave families just $22 per year). The governor promised to continue to work on those issues.

“Well, we’re going to be working on education and jobs and the economy,” she said. “Yes, we will have some of those coming forward after the election.”

If Ivey’s message was about the present, Maddox’s was about the future. The Tuscaloosa mayor has pledged to expand Medicaid on his first day in office and to negotiate with casino and gambling interests to establish a lottery to fund pre-K, K-12 and college education. The Legislature has the final say on the passage of any lottery and must provide enabling legislation to allow the expansion of Medicaid.

Maddox argued he could work with a Republican Legislature to expand Medicaid, citing its potential benefits for rural hospitals: “I can guarantee you no Republican legislator wants a hospital to close in their district," he said. Maddox also said he would negotiate an agreement with the Poarch Band of Creek Indians and the state's dogtracks to resolve the gaming issues that could emerge if a lottery is approved. He outlined an overall vision of improving Alabama's standing on a number of issues, from education to health care.

"When you rank number one in the nation in infant mortality ... you know the direction you’re going in as a state is unacceptable,” he said.

Maddox campaigned aggressively on the trail, attacking Ivey for not debating and trying to tie her to Bentley's administration, which Ivey operated independent of when she was lieutenant governor. Ivey dismissed the calls for debate and run on a platform of “steadying the ship of state.”

“This election is about policies of the past vs. policies of the future,” he said. “This election is about ideas, not ideologues. This election is about results and not rhetoric.”